Embarrassing Songs Of Beloved Rock Stars

It's hard to argue against the ideathat Vitalogywas a turning point for Pearl Jam. This was a band coming into its own in the rock pantheon: at its most solid and occasionally daring to experiment with weird, different song styles. Unfortunately, experimenting often sucks, just like "Bugs"sucks.

It's hard to argue against the idea that Vitalogy was a turning point for Pearl Jam. This was a band coming into its own in the rock pantheon: at its most solid and occasionally daring to experiment with weird, different song styles. Unfortunately, experimenting often sucks, just like "Bugs" sucks.

The basic setup of "Bugs" is Vedder, playing an accordion he clearly never learned how to play, ranting about "bugs in [his] room" and bed and ears and everywhere else on his body. They're taking over the Vedder, which might explain why his accordion-playing is so awful. He literally repeats two notes the entire song. Bugs swarming all around him and laying bug eggs in his hair must be pretty distracting. Presumably the drummer is overwhelmed by the bugs, too, because his "drumming" is more like repeatedly punching a tambourine.

By the end of the song, Vedder audibly wonders what he should do about the bugs. Eat them? Kill them? Join them? He chooses the latter, because "they're always taking over" and "deciding his fate." He then strips down and becomes a bug, like Kafka for the grunge crowd. And that, like it or not, is "Bugs." It's pretty clear that Vedder was going for a grimy, surreal, Tom Waits vibe here, but what's even more clear is that, as talented as Vedder is, he is absolutely not Tom Waits. 

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